The slag formed in the cupola or blast furnace must be removed continuously or intermittently. If the volume of slag is small, it may be run out on a dry sand bed and carried with the bottom drop. But large volumes of slag must be run out into suitable slag pots, which are cooled and taken to a slag dump for slag disposal. Due to the weight of such slag pots, overhead cranes have been consistently employed to carry the pots within the melt shop building. However, the availability of such cranes is limited due to their use for many other melt shop tasks and thus are at a use premium. Cranes also are generally slow in movement and are limited to a path beneath the crane supporting structure. This has necessitated additional equipment, such as expensive straddle trucks which meet the pots at exposed loading platforms, having been carried there by cranes. There is need to overcome the disadvantages of such dual transportation network, and to overcome the general slowness and inflexibility of such system.